I had a task that I thought would be really simple, now it has turned into something else.
I have a 2000 Saturn SL1. It has 90k miles on it, and we bought it used a couple of months back.
It came with only one key and remote transmitter, which work fine. Because two of us drive the car, we needed another key and transmitter.
I heard that the programming for the remote could only be done at a Saturn dealer, and that some dealers will do it for free.
I bought a used transmitter on ebay. I called the local dealer, and they said reprogramming is a simple fast job, and I could bring it in immediately and they could turn it around in a few minutes for $28.
I brought the car in, and it turned into a long wait. They said the procedure involves training the Saturn Security System receiver for the new transmitter. But when they tried to do this, they reported that the system would not reset with the new transmitter. Apparently this involves reprogramming with both transmitters, so even though the old transmitter worked fine with the system, they have to reprogram with both. I guess resetting the receiver wipes out everything.
So now, the system doesn't work with the old transmitter either, because that code is wiped out when they reprogram.
They don't know what to do except plug in a piece of test equipment (I think it is one of those proprietary analyzer that the shop pays big bucks for, and it only comes from the car mfr), but that will cost me $95.
Does this seem reasonable? From the customer's perspective, I brought in a car with a working receiver and transmitter for what should have been a simple procedure. But now it mysteriously doesn't work, and they have no way to "put it back" to the previous working state, but the next step is to plug in a piece of test equipment. But why should the customer pay $95 for them to plug in the analyzer?
I have no way to know if they screwed up, this is just a coincidence, or the unit is a victim of electrostatic discharge, and I have no reason to believe they are dishonest.
An analogy to me would be me bringing a TV into the neighborhood repair shop 40 years ago to have it realigned and tuned for the best color (this was in the days when televisions weren't disposable, and were repaired at a shop in your neighborhood). But while doing this, the technician reports that something went wrong, and he will have to plug in his big new expensive oscilloscope to diagnose the problem. For using this piece of test equipment, the shop charges the customer a $50 fee. Not reasonable!
I asked why they didn't just plug in the analyzer when trying to diagnose the problem, and they said the shop was about to close, and I have to bring the car in next week.
Anyone else run into this?
This now turns into a NEW job, that only begins with a $95 fee for plugging in a piece of standard test equipment. I thought of visiting a competing Saturn dealership in the area, and then discovered that the same company owns ALL the Saturn dealership in the region, over a several state area.
Another thing that worries me....when I asked about what could be causing this, I think he said something about a CPU or controller (I don't recall exactly what he called it), and this sounds like one of those proprietary single-source computer modules that controls everything in the car, and costs thousands of dollars to plug in a new one.
What would you do? Do the charges seem reasonable? Everything worked fine when I brought it in.